Tory peer Baroness Nicholson reported for bullying after sharing ‘racist and transphobic abuse’ about model Munroe Bergdorf
Baroness Nicholson (left) was accused of bullying Munroe Bergdorf. (Roger Harris/Getty)
Trans allies are writing complaints to parliament after Tory peer Baroness Nicholson shared “racist and transphobic” abuse about model Munroe Bergdorf.
Bergdorf, a Black trans woman, was called a “weird creature” by Nicholson, 78, who is the co-founder of children’s charity Lumos with anti-trans author JK Rowling.
People who follow Nicholson on Twitter went on to bizarrely accuse Bergdorf of “soliciting” teenagers, apparently based on past tweets in which the patron of trans kids charity Mermaids offered to support trans children.
In a now-deleted tweet, Nicholson also misgendered Bergdorf, later appearing to mock the people who had complained about the misgendering.
The tweet in which Baroness Nicholson claimed misgendering Munroe Bergdorf had been a typo.
“Until yesterday I didn’t know who Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, was,” Bergdorf wrote on Instagram on June 22.
Bergdorf said that Nicholson is “a follower of trans exclusionary radical feminism, or as they call it gender critical feminism“.
“In addition to calling me ‘a weird creature’ and sharing transphobic memes featuring abuse that I received three years ago, reframed as if I said it myself,” Bergdorf continued, “she has also deliberately misgendered me and begun retweeting dangerous propaganda from anti-trans hate group Transgender Trend, who actively go into schools to disseminate anti-trans rhetoric.”
“As patron of Mermaids and someone who dedicates so much time and energy into campaigning for trans kids to have a voice, I’m absolutely disgusted that a member of the House of Lords is able to behave this way. This is not OK.”
In response to Nicholson’s tweets – which have also included sharing memes about anti-trans feminist Germaine Greer – people have begun complaining to the the House of Lords commissioner of standards, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff CBE.
In the middle of her tweets about Munroe Bergdorf, Baroness Nicholson shared this transphobic meme featuring Germaine Greer.
One person’s email to Scott-Moncrieff, in which they said that Nicholson was “bullying” Bergdorf, was shared on Instagram.
“I am writing as a concerned citizen,” they wrote. “I need to report a breach of the Code of Conduct by a member of the House.”
“This weekend, Baroness Nicholson used her Twitter account to harass and bully trans-rights activist Munroe Bergdorf. There can be no mistake about her intentions. It was to demean and shame Munroe and this kind of behaviour must not be tolerated.”
Munroe Bergdorf shared this message on her Instagram story.
Poet Roz Kaveney added: “I’ve got more abuse in a day for sticking up a little for Munroe Bergdorf than I normally get in a month.
“Just to remind me 1. how much white privilege I have and 2. that transphobes are usually racists and racists are always transphobes.”
I've got more abuse in a day for sticking up a little for @MunroeBergdorf than I normally get in a month. Just to remind me 1. how much white privilege I have and 2. that transphobes are usually racists and racists are always transphobes.— Roz Kaveney (@RozKaveney) June 21, 2020
Earlier this month, Baroness Nicholson – who has been a life peer since 1997 – was widely condemned after launching an astonishing attack on equal marriage.
She suggested that the introduction of same-sex marriage in 2013 has degraded “the status of women and of girls… as a binary class”, saying nothing of the fact the law has given thousands of lesbian and bisexual women the right to marry other women.
Baroness Nicholson has been contacted for comment.
